Chapter Two - Unfinished Words

Tired of talking to the dead, I decide it's time I confided in someone. This isn't as easy as it sounds. All of my superhero pals will either arrest me or, worse yet, snitch on me to Bats. It can't be a 'civilian' for obvious reasons. It's got to be one of us in-betweeners. I can't tell Lois - it'd end up on the front page. Then I think of Snapper Carr. He's betrayed the JLA, so it's not as if he can have a go at me.

Fortunately he's currently logged on (I guess he's got a lot of time on his hands since the Young Justice gig finished), so within seconds we're communicating online:


chicksLoveTheCarr: *clicks fingers* Hi, Barb, long time no hear.

We start off with small talk. I ask him when he's going to introduce me to that Rick guy that he keeps promising to fix me up with. He gives me the brush off by saying that he hasn't been able to get in touch with him recently. After offering him some sympathy about YJ finishing, I get down to business. I ask him if he's heard about Batman killing himself, and, of course, like everyone, he has. And, of course, he knows that it involved someone dressed as Batman throwing someone else dressed as Batman from a penthouse apartment.

We then discuss the Batman that was thrown; the Batman that fell to the Earth and, having said one last word, died. That Batman wasn't, of course, The Batman. That Batman was Dr Hugo Strange, albeit a shaved and spectacles-less Hugo (which we both agree made him look years younger).

Of course Hugo seemed to die on a daily basis. More times than Resurrection Man as Snapper observes. But, I point out, this time there was a crucial difference. This time there was a corpse, a real corpse. It passed all the Allen tests - it wasn't a clone, a mandroid, or a Bizarro. This time he wasn't only really dead, he was really most sincerely dead.

Then we switch to discussing the Batman that threw him to his death. This Batman also
wasn't the real Batman, but one of those mandroids that Hugo specialised in. Snapper and I then waste a ridiculous amount of time trying to work out what the difference was, if any, between an android and a mandroid, without reaching any sensible conclusions.

Snapper asks how I could be sure it was a mandroid, and it's then that I drop my bombshell. It was me who sent the mandroid.

Following Snapper's expressions of surprise and consternation, and a further clicking of his fingers, I tell him what had happened to me the morning of Hugo's death. I'd received the mandroid in the mail. It was addressed to Barbara Gordon. A letter attached indicated that it was a present from Hugo. Snapper asks me why Hugo would send me a present, and so I reveal to him that Hugo and I had once been lovers, and I warn Snapper not to tell anyone or his fingers won't be the only part of him that are snapping.

We then get on to a discussion of Hugo's fixation with Batman. I tell him that Hugo had always been obsessed with Batman. I'm going to add that he must have become even more obsessed when he found out that Bruce Wayne was Batman, but then realize there are some things that Snapper shouldn't be told. Instead, I admit to Snapper that Hugo had liked to wear his Batman outfit when we were making love. This causes Snapper to come back with a sleazy "To the batpole!" remark. Once I chide him over this, we then get into an equally low-brow discussion about how anatomically correct the mandroid was.

Veering the conversation back on track, I tell Snapper how the mandroid had come with a full set of instructions. Hugo said in his note that he wanted to make amends for the past, that he was sorry that he'd not been there for me after the Joker incident, and that I could use the mandroid to get rid of the Joker if I so wished. I tell Snapper that I sent the mandroid to get Hugo instead. Snapper thinks that killing The Joker would have been a great idea, after all he'd wrecked both our career paths, and can't understand why I'd send it to kill Hugo. I explain that I didn't sent it to kill him, just to apprehend him. I was busy helping the JLA save the universe at the time, and it just seemed like the easiest thing to do. After all, Hugo had been stupid enough to include his address in the letter.

Snapper thinks it's poetic justice that he got killed by his own mandroid, that accidents will happen, and that I can't blame myself.

I tell Snapper that I know it was an accident, but that's not why I'm worried. Hugo left clues.

The moment Batman, the real Batman that is, heard about Hugo dying he was straight over to Hugo's penthouse apartment, after all Hugo knows Batman is Bruce Wayne. It's then that Snapper lets me know that he himself didn't know Batman was Bruce Wayne. I tell him that I thought everyone knew it, and I was surprised that Tim never mentioned it to him while he was looking after Young Justice. From his response it becomes pretty obvious that Snapper also doesn't know Tim Drake is Robin. I tell him to forget everything I just said.

Anyway, Batman wanted to protect his secret identity from the few (such as Snapper) who weren't aware of it, and went straight over to the apartment just to check that there was nothing there that could give his big secret away.

Meanwhile, the mandroid had been taken to police headquarters where he was just about to confess to Hugo's murder. Just as he was about to take his mask off, which had Bruce Wayne's face underneath, the Huntress (who I'd sent there as soon as I'd heard what had happened) turned up and de-activated the mandroid using the magic phrase I'd told her.

Snapper asks what the magic phrase was, and I tell him "Smelly Cat", the song Phoebe plays on friends. I never figured Hugo to be a Friends fan, but there were a bunch of videos of Friends, along with some videos of Dinosaurs (the sitcom), that Batman found at Hugo's place. Now Batman wants me to sit through the videos looking for clues. Snapper kindly offers to help - he must have way too much time on his hands these days.

Apart from the videos, Batman also found signs of a struggle: overturned furniture, a broken mirror, a knocked-over bonsai. Nothing particularly interesting. Apart, that is, from the letters OR scrawled on the wall in Hugo's blood. Also, there's some unconscious lady in the bedroom, dressed in cheap lingerie and a Batman mask.

Snapper's interest perks up, asking who she is, and I have to admit that we've no idea. Batman took her into his care, just in case she knew anything about his secret identity. A thorough medical examination by Leslie Thompkins revealed that her Batman mask was attached using an adhesive the like of which nobody on this world had ever come across, and short of sending Ray Palmer in with a chisel, the only way that they were going to remove it was to wait a few weeks until STAR labs could fully analyse a sample of the said adhesive.
The mystery lady herself can't shed any light on who she is because either she's mute and illiterate, or Hugo's done some trick to her mind so that she can't communicate with us. Any attempts she makes to talk come out silent, and, similarly, any attempts to write or gesture tend to go horribly wrong and just make her get really frustrated. Snapper points out that we could just get the JLA to help. J'onn could read her thoughts, Superman could look through her mask. I tell Snapper that I realize that this is the obvious thing to do, but Batman doesn't want to. He wants to figure it own on his own. He's the World's greatest detective. I guess it's a pride thing.

I then tell Snapper, when he asks if there's anything else to go on, that the mystery woman's in great shape. Could be an athlete, a gymnast, a superheroine or just one big red herring. Who knows? She's also got traces of rope burns on her arms and legs, but who knows what weird stuff Hugo subjected her to? Also, all of her hair's dyed black.

Finally, when Snapper asks if that's everything, I tell him that it isn't. We've got hold of Hugo's computer, and we're extracting the information from it even as we speak, and, of course, there's Hugo's final word, as reported by an eye witness. "Joker".

Snapper tells me that I've got nothing to worry about, that Batman will think The Joker did it. End of story. I remind Snapper of the OR. Hugo was trying to write ORACLE. Batman will figure this out in no time. As I pointed out earlier, he's the world's greatest detective. Also, what Snapper and Batman don't know at the moment is I've got a motive. A great motive. I know a secret, a secret I've kept for a while now. I should have mentioned it to Batman straight away, but I was afraid of the consequences it would have for him. Now I'm afraid to mention it because of the consequences it will have for me.

I look at the messages Snapper and I have been exchanging and notice that *clicks fingers* appears at regular intervals in his messages, every tenth message. He must have it automated, I look at the screen, thinking it must be time for the next one, but the next message I see is:


hugoAGoGo: Barbara, dear sweet, innocent Barbara. OR isn't short for Oracle. You, of all people, should know what it's really short for. Hope that sets your mind at rest. See you around. Love, Hugo.

I shut down my connection to the outside world immediately, not even saying goodbye to Snapper. It isn't the first time in my life that Hugo's got inside my system, but it'll certainly be the last.